Only 55 lakh farmers can get loan

Mumba: Even after spending Rs 23,000 crore on the farm loan waiver scheme, only 50-55 lakh farmers in the state will be eligible for new loans for this year’s kharif season, which is the same as every year. More than 75 to 80 lakh farmers will still not be eligible for new loans. Hence, not much has changed despite the state spending Rs 23,000 crore to 28,000 crore to bring farmers into the banking system. The agrarian crisis will continue this year also.

The basic intension behind the loan waiver scheme was to bring farmers into the banking system again. If farmers have loan arrears, then they are ineligible for new loans as per banking rules. There are 1.36 crore farmers in the state and 89 lakh were in the banking system, as per the figures of the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC). But to date, CM Devendra Fadnavis has announced the benefit of scheme to 47.88 lakh farmers, of which 34 lakh were for loan waiver and 14 lakh for the incentive scheme.

Out of the loan waiver, 8 lakh farmers have been offered One Time Settlement (OTS). Those in this category have loans more than Rs 1.5 lakh and if they will pay the remaining amount, the state had offered to pay Rs 1.5 lakh. But only 18,000 farmers responded to this scheme. Currently, only 40 lakh farmers are eligible for taking new loans for the 2018 Khariff season, which will start from April 1.

The state government is processing the remaining 18-19 lakh applications, out of which 4-5 lakh may get benefit of the scheme. There were conditions for the scheme so that public representatives, government employees, income tax payees and few others were not eligible for it. Assuming that due to these conditions 3-4 lakh farmers have not applied, only 50-55 lakh farmers will become eligible for new loan in 2018, which is routine, said officials of the cooperative department.

If out of 1.36 crore farmers, only 50-55 lakh will be eligible, then 75-80 lakh will still remain outside the banking system and avail the loans from private money lenders, feared officials. Cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh said that farmers have received good money for their crop, hence crop loan disbursement was low in 2017.

But former chief minister Prithiviraj Chavan has objected to it and claimed that the loan waiver scheme was a complete failure.